RE: Generally, what do you think of generally?

["Blaine, Karen L." <karen -dot- blaine -at- unisys -dot- com>]

For what it's worth...
While there are times when the use of "typically" and "generally" may be
appropriate, I find I can usually avoid them. My gut feeling when reading a
document using those words is that the material comes across as
condescending. I often see "typically" and "generally" in documents written
by programmers, especially the prima donnas. Each word places a slightly
judgmental twist on the context of the rest of the sentence, implying that I
should see what is obvious and that I may be too stupid or ignorant to do
so. 


-----Original Message-----
From: anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com [mailto:anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 7:36 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: FWD: Generally, what do you think of generally?



Hi everyone. 
I won't take up too much time, I just have one question.
My company has several products all of which have a few books written
about them. As you might guess, the manager wants all of the books to look
like
they were  written by the same person (let's not go there). I am not
telling you this because I want to gripe/question about that issue. I am
asking
what you think about writing the books using a term like typically or
generally, prior to telling what the reader/user should do. For example:
Typically, on a rainy day you use an umbrella.
rather than: 
On a rainy day you use an umbrella.
My thoughts/concerns are that the former, when used in real life
situations, is too wishy-washy. If it is something that they may or may not
do (it is
their call), I think they will be smart enough to not do it if they want
to, even if you use directive language.



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